Category Archives: Light Meals

I am fond of seafood – as distinct from fish – which I also like but I do make the distinction. Mussels are delicious – fresh or frozen. Frutti di Mare is a frozen product of various seafood from Lidl. They stock this plus other gorgeous goodies during the festive season.
This is a simple, quick and extremely yummy soup!!

How to make-up
1 tbsp groundnut oil – put in a medium saucepan, add the onion, garlic and leek. Fry gently until soft. Add the cubed potatoes and the stock.

This is the easiest soup really

Cook gently until the potatoes are nearly soft but not quite. Add the thyme sprig and lemon juice (to taste. Add the wine, parsley and chives. I also add several drops of fish sauce but this is optional.

Start adding salt and pepper and then the seafood. Add the cream and stir to combine all. Taste to ensure the flavours are melding well. When all is hot, add the torn spinach and stir in well. Then add a big knob of butter to finish and give a shine to the soup.

Serve with garlic bread, croutons, snack sized toasted bread or whatever you like. I promise you it is the yummiest soup. Enjoy.

I have a coffee table in my office and often eat there while reading. This was one of those occasions.

This is such a terrific pickle. I found this recipe by Charmaine Solomon in the 1970s when my boys and I lived on our wee farm and grew all our vegetables. I must have planted a lot of eggplant seeds because when it became apparent that we would have dozens of the big, purple fruits, I had to work out what to do with them. Hence the brinjal pickle. These days, in order to experience the gorgeous flavours and texture of this pickle, I have to buy the aubergines. Sob. It doesn’t matter what brand of Brinjal pickle I buy in jars in Asian supermarkets, it doesn’t taste anywhere near as delicious as the homemade variety. I guess, because to be commercially viable, some things are left out, some stuff added and blah. Anyway, it doesn’t have the same flavour I like. My boys used this as a spread on their cheese sandwiches. You can also use it on rice for a quick curry. It is truly lovely stuff. As a curry it is called Brinjal pahi and I am sure there are as many versions as there are cooks – 1,490 entries in Wikipedia alone! This one is now mine.

Here we go.

3 medium purple aubergines or 2 large ones – sliced about ¾cm thick. Lay out as many slices as fit on a paper kitchen towel. Sprinkle salt over the slices and then sprinkle turmeric powder. Rub the slices, turn them over and repeat for the other side. Use a big, non-reactive bowl and place the prepared slices in layers. Cover with a plastic sheet and leave to sweat the moisture for a minimum of two hours. I often left the aubergine overnight and poured the liquid off in the morning. Blot the slices dry on paper before frying. This doesn’t take as long as you think it will. Have a cuppa.

Sliced aubergine exsanguinating

Cover the base of a large frying pan with about 2cm oil and heat. Fry the slices slowly until brown on both sides. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and place in a large bowl. Reserve the frying oil. I have to say that an Aga would be good. I had a slow combustion stove on the farm and the ability to control heat is an advantage. I have made it on a gas stove but never on an electric stove. Today I had to use the induction hob. Not good, not good at all. I mean the cooking worked but fires are a much better way to go.

Sweated, dried off & ready to fry – this is the tedious part of the process

Heat ½cup reserved oil, fry blended wet mixture for 5mins. Add dry mixture and other ingredients. Add the aubergine slices (I use a sharp knife at this stage to roughly cut through the aubergine thus breaking the skin up) and oil from the bowl they were in, stir well, cover and simmer for 15mins. You may need to add some more salt.

Keep your wee spoon out of this – we are bottling it.

Let cool thoroughly before bottling in clean, dry bottles. I kept a bottle for 4 years and it was absolutely gorgeous. It just doesn’t ever go ‘off’.

I used an oriental bean stir-fry mix from Asda comprising bean sprouts, edamame beans, red peppers, shaved carrots and Chinese cabbage. I added a finely sliced mushroom and some leeks with some cut asparagus spears.

I sliced a chicken breast very finely – it’s pretty easy to do when the chicken is still half frozen. The quantities don’t really matter that much – it depends on how many you are feeding. I was only feeding me and the photos show quantities for one plus some left-overs for the evening.

The spicy marinade I used was a suggestion from an fb correspondent on a comment thread extolling the virtues of turmeric. It is part of the ginger family – Zingiberaceae. It’s tropical and grows wild and in gardens throughout Mullumbimby where I used to live. I grew it with several other gingers for culinary purposes. All ginger plants are very easy on the eye as well.

Anyway here is the spice mix. I just shook an even amount of all three spices into a small bowl and added enough lemon juice and olive oil to make a squishy paste.

I smothered the chicken in the marinade and left it for about an hour.

Marinating happily in spice

I knew the chicken would take about four minutes to cook so the vegetables have to be cut finely enough to also cook for about 4 minutes.

Heat up some sunflower oil in a wok and add the chicken at quite a high heat so that the meat browns evenly. This requires constant stirring until the chicken is cooked but not burnt. Remove and set aside.

Any vegetables you like – cut finely

The vegetables can be whatever you prefer. I used some of the oriental bean stir-fry mix plus mushroom, leek and asparagus. I cut the asparagus spears into three sections and covered with boiling water for about six or so minutes to soften them.

Add more oil and heat. Pour in all the vegetables and stir to coat them. Cover the pan for four minutes but stir frequently so the vegetables don’t burn. Towards the end of cooking add ½ clove minced garlic plus several drops of sesame oil and season with pepper and salt. Add back the chicken and heat through. There is not much sauce with this so if you like, add a sauce of maybe soy, chicken or vegetable stock. You can add more heat as well.

I served this with a fine egg pasta and added a real favourite of mine – Nando’s Sun-dried Tomato and Basil Peri peri marinade. Well – I use it as a sauce.

I used Harmony potatoes because I had just lifted them from the garden. Next time I will use red potatoes with a natural nutty flavour and firmer texture. Maybe Pink Fir Apple potatoes. Having said that the Harmony potatoes roasted well and were fluffy inside and nicely browned on the outside. I never peel potatoes.

I parboiled the quartered potatoes and drained them. Tossed in olive oil, I roasted them as one layer on a baking sheet at 190ºC for about 20 minutes. I have never been very good with exact times for cooking. I guess you sort of know when things are ready.

Coated with Olive oil

Fry the bacon in a heavy based frying pan for several minutes turning the pieces so that they don’t catch but start to crisp up. Add the red onion and garlic and keep frying and turning until the bacon is really crisp.

Mix the red wine vinegar, salt and pepper and then tip the bacon mixture in. The bacon drippings add juices to the dressing. Mix in the sliced green spring onions. Finally put the roasted potatoes in a serving bowl and mix the dressing through thoroughly.

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Using pork steaks untrimmed but sliced finely is a quick and easy way to stir fry the meat. The larder has been getting a bit of a clean out lately, mainly because winter has returned with a vengeance and with snow! Not that I mind snow; I actively love it. It is the dreich days with bitter wind, sleet and low cloud that keep me indoors. So the larder and the freezer have been the mainstay of cooking. It’s good because all the ingredients bought in a flash of enthusiasm often end up sitting in their containers in larder and freezer looking unappreciated for far too long. After all, we are subject to fads and favourites!!

The larder disgorged some very useful additions to this dish

A while back I found a couple of bottles in the supermarket that were dressings. One was a mango & ginger dressing meant for a salad. I thought it sounded just right for a pork stir fry. Pork is such a sweet meat and juicy if left untrimmed. I liberated a pork steak from the icy confines of the freezer and let it defrost in the fridge. I even felt virtuous.

Some vegetables, seasonings and oils and we had the makings of a dish. You could use whatever vegetables you have on hand and cut to cook at stir fry pace. I did have some spring onions but will use them tomorrow night. Alternatively cibouli onions would do well. Brown onions would be too strong, I think and red onions wouldn’t really work either. But, of course, this choice is up to the individual.

I didn’t have any water chestnuts in the larder, but I quite like the thought of adding them. Add sliced bamboo shoots if you have them. Sliced green capsicum would be good.

This recipe shows the quantities for one serving.

Ingredients

1 pork steak untrimmed and sliced into strips
1 leek cut into ½cm slices
1 clove garlic finely chopped
2 big handfuls baby spinach leaves
1 green chilli sliced finely. I still have some frozen in ice cube trays
½ knuckle of ginger sliced finely
½teasp chicken stock powder. I use Knorr
½teasp ground coriander or 2 coriander plants chopped – leaves, stalks and root
2-3tbsp Mango & Ginger dressing – or something similar
½-1teasp hot & spicy green habanero sauce
Biggish splash dry white wine
Hokkien Noodles, cooked or a pre-cooked packet – which is what I used
1½tbps garlic flavoured oil mixed with sunflower oil
Smallish knob of butter to finish
Salt & Pepper – I used Szechuan pepper. WW has made some P&S shakers and we filled the pepper shaker with a mixture of ground peppers, one of which was Szechuan with some white and black as well. We didn’t have any green or red pepper corns but they will find their way into the larder.

The Ash and Walnut P&S shakers. Lovely pieces.

Method

Heat the wok – I have a wok that is deep and small with a flat base because I have an induction hob. It is sufficiently worn in to have become my favourite. Add the oils, salt and the chicken stock powder. When hot, pour in the pork, chilli and leek. Stir fry on a moderate heat for 1min.

My favourite wok

Add the garlic, ginger, ground coriander (or chopped root & stems) and stir. Add the dressing and sauce. This turns into a smooth cooking sauce to which you can add the splash of dry white. Reduce if necessary.I didn’t have to and in any case, you don’t want to overcook the stir fry.

Pour in the cooked Hokkien noodles and the spinach leaves. Stir to coat everything and let simmer for 2mins. Add the pepper and the butter with one final stir and ladle out into a bowl to serve.

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I really, really love prawns and can eat them by themselves washed down with an icy cold dry white or champagne. I also love them with chilli. The two ingredients seem to complement each other so well and spring onions and spinach are just so delicious. So I added them to this dish.

I had some dry white wine (ahem), and all of the above. This recipe is a variation on Curtis Stone’s recipe in kidspot.

Method:
Cook linguine according to packet directions.
When the pasta is about 5 minutes from being cooked, heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Add the white parts of the spring onions, garlic, capsicum and chilli and cook for 1-2min. Add prawns and cook for 1min, stirring occasionally. Add the wine and swirl to deglaze the wok, reduce sauce by half.
Add the lemon juice and rind to the prawns. Slowly pour the olive oil into the pan, stirring to emulsify.
Toss drained linguine in with the sauce. Add the greens from the spring onions and the baby spinach. Season with salt and pepper. Serves one as a main or maybe two as a light supper.

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Rosti are so versatile as a light lunch or supper dish. You can use basically anything you have in the fridge and larder to create a tasty snackish meal.

Using baby Charlottes, unpeeled but cleaned up of eyes and dark skin patches. I cut them in half and boiled them in salted water. I use a so-called ‘lite’ salt these days. We love salt too much and I try to mitigate against too much damage as we age by using a mixture of Sodium chloride and Potassium chloride.

Ainsley Harriott presented a fresh pea programme on Great British Food today and inspired me to make potato and pea rosti.

He was promoting fresh garden peas (which are beautiful and I have probably missed planting seed for this year’s cropping).

So I used frozen peas because that’s what I had. I didn’t have courgettes which would work really well to fill the rosti, so I used a mini Cos called Baby Gem. I used to grow thousands of them in Mullumbimby for the salad leaf mix that I sold. As a stand alone lettuce it has a great shelf life and is crunchy. Yum.

So, here’s my ingredient list:

Peas and the baby Cos

500gr baby potatoes cleaned but not peeled, halved and boiled in salted water
200gr frozen or fresh shelled peas boiled not mushy
1 mini Cos lettuce roughly cut, leaves separated
2 lightly beaten eggs
Some grated parmesan – the amount is to your taste. I used lots because we both love cheese. Should have used more!
Some breadcrumbs will help bind the mixture. You could use ground rice but not too much.
Toasted pine nuts if you have them available in the larder
Some torn basil leaves
2 tbsp Olive oil
Pepper and salt

What to do:

Mash the boiled potatoes very roughly in a bowl and add the olive oil. Add the cooked, drained peas, parmesan, pepper and some salt and the egg. Mix without mashing the potatoes too much and add the breadcrumbs, pine nuts, basil and the lettuce. Take a quick taste, add further seasoning if necessary.

All mixed up and ready to go

Six rosti ready to fry

Form into patties and firm the edges with a spatula to stop the peas falling out. Heat some oil in a large frying pan and add the formed rosti carefully. Don’t be tempted to turn them too quickly. Let them brown up first and as the egg cooks, the rosti become easier to handle. The other temptation is to try and cook the rosti on too high a heat so that they brown but the inside doesn’t cook. Better to use a lower heat so that everything cooks and browns at the same time. Turn them over once when browned and serve with a dressing of your choice.

There are so many ready-made dressings around that it is often easier to use a bought one. There’s Heinz Blue Cheese Dressing on the shelves; a Nando Sun-dried Tomato and Basil sauce and any number of other sauces and dressing to titillate your palette.

A tasty stack!

Or make your own. Ainsley made a tangy tomato dressing with plum tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, shallot and red wine vinegar. I didn’t but it sounds good.